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Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Dave Portnoy trolls Mexican boxer after Trump's ICE agents arrested and vowed to deport him over 'cartel links'
Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy has poked fun at Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. after the boxer was arrested by ICE agents just five days after his loss to Jake Paul. The 39-year-old son of the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez was picked up while riding his scooter in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City - with footage of the incident later emerging on social media. He was then processed over what Department of Homeland Security officials claim are his connections to the Sinaloa Cartel - an organization his father was famously friendly with during his celebrated boxing career. The Department of Homeland Security said they are 'processing him for expedited removal from the United States' due to a warrant in Mexico. DHS officials say Chavez Jr's June 28 loss to Paul occurred one day after he became determined to stay in the country illegally - and now Portnoy has jumped in to goad the 39-year-old boxer. Taking to X on Thursday night, the Barstool boss wrote: 'Lose to Jake Paul. Instantly get deported. In the history of bad weeks this gotta be top 10'. After news of Chavez Jr's arrest, Portnoy took to social media to post this message Paul, similarly, took to the social media platform to troll his opponent from Saturday night. Initially, he just posted an American flag emoji. Two hours later, Paul returned to X to share another blunt message. He wrote: 'Canelo is next'. Paul had been linked with a stunning bout against Canelo at the start of the year, but was eventually snubbed for a four-fight deal with Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Season. Instead, Canelo is gearing up for a blockbuster super-fight against Terence Crawford for the super middleweight titles on September 13. Meanwhile, in its statement, DHS explained Chavez Jr's warrant relates to 'his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives'. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: 'This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate with an active arrest warrant for trafficking guns, ammunition, and explosives was arrested by ICE. The statement also accused the Biden White House of allowing Chavez to leave the US. 'It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat, but chose to not prioritize his removal and let him leave and COME BACK into our country. 'Under President Trump, no one is above the law—including world-famous athletes. Our message to any cartel affiliates in the U.S. is clear: We will find you and you will face consequences. The days of unchecked cartel violence are over.' Mexico has since confirmed that it issued an arrest warrant for Chavez Jr in 2023. Now, according to Mexican officials, their government and DHS officials have 'started the corresponding procedure for his extradition to Mexico.' The timing of his deportation has not been revealed publicly. Meanwhile, the DHS report makes note that, in August 2023, Chavez Jr. legally entered the US via a B2 tourist visa that was valid until February 2024. 'The current allegations are outrageous and simply another headline to terrorize the community,' Chavez Jr's attorney Michael Goldstein told The Associated Press. Speaking to the AP, Goldstein said he did not know where his client was being detained on Thursday morning. Goldstein says Chavez is due in court on Monday in connection with prior gun possession charges. In April 2024, Chavez filed an application for a Lawful Permanent Resident status based upon his marriage to a US citizen, who was connected to infamous cartel leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. In December, immigration services flagged that Chavez was an 'egregious public safety threat'. One month later, in January this year, the previous administration led by Joe Biden allowed Chavez to re-enter the country and paroled him into the US. Multiple 'fraudulent statements' on his Lawful Permanent Resident application meant that Chavez was legally able to removed from the country on June 27th - two days prior to his fight against Paul. Chavez's father - who was also a boxing star and a namesake to his son - has openly spoken about his own relationships with the Sinaloa Cartel and, in particular, 'El Chapo'. In a podcast with journalist Javier Alarcon in 2021, Chavez revealed: 'Not just El Chapo, I've met all the most wanted drug traffickers, like Amado Carrillo, El Azul (Esparragoza), and El Mayo (Zambada). 'I know them all, and they've all been my friends, but that's about it. Those people, if you know them, are good people'. Meanwhile, Portnoy himself made headlines this week after getting into a heated argument with a pizza shop employee and being kicked out. However, the sports media titan quickly denied he was the man in the video - while reveling in the fact that the viral clip was making his name trend on X. 'Momma there goes that man again! The haters are so obsessed with me they make me go viral even when it's not even me. That's true power!,' he wrote in response to the clip. 'I've become a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. "Rat on your pop, and Portnoy will get you!'
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Diddy hit by explosive new sex scandal hours after being cleared of most serious charges he faced
Sean ' Diddy ' Combs was hit by a explosive new lawsuit just hours after he was acquitted of sex-trafficking and racketeering. The music mogul, 55, and his main accuser Cassie Ventura have been accused of drugging and traumatizing one of the male escorts they hired to participate their freak offs, Clayton Howard. Howard, who also goes by 'Dave,' claims Cassie gave him an STD and that she aborted his baby without telling him. He says she manipulated into taking ecstasy and having unprotected sex. Diddy was convicted of transporting Howard and six other male escorts across state lines to engage in prostitution. Howard claims in the lawsuit that he was paid to have sex with Diddy and Cassie for eight years, beginning in 2009. He says he was used as 'entertainment to satisfy their sexual fetishes and personal ambitions.' The male escort says both Diddy and Cassie were toxic individuals addicted to opiates and methamphetamines who had no regard for others or the law. Howard challenges the narrative of Cassie as a victim, claiming: 'Ventura was not merely a victim forced into sexual encounters with male escorts, but rather an active and engaged participant who willingly manipulated and exploited others, including Plaintiff, to satisfy the sexually depraved desires of Defendant Combs and herself.' He claims Cassie 'drugged him with controlled substances, including MDMA in doses three times stronger than what she herself consumed, to lower his inhibitions and facilitate sexual exploitation.' The lawsuit adds that Cassie 'used these substances strategically, "like a spider catching its prey in its web."' Howard says Cassie 'commanded him to masturbate for hours,' which would leave his 'penis bruised and swollen.' He says he would ask Cassie to consider his injuries but she 'showed no mercy.' He accuses her of manipulating and forcing 'herself upon him during her menstrual cycle against his will' as well as filming him without his consent. Howard also says Diddy 'implied threats of violence' and once threatened to 'pistol whip' him. 'Ventura deceived, manipulated, and injured Plaintiff and therefore, should be held accountable alongside Defendant Combs, as the two were partners in these criminal enterprises,' the lawsuit reads. Howard is asking for unspecified monetary relief. He also has released a book titled Cassie: Victim or co-conspirator.' The lawsuit comes after Diddy was denied bond after being convicted of prostitution-related offenses Wednesday. He was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop's most celebrated figures behind bars for life. Diddy's lawyers said that under federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely face about two years in prison. Prosecutors, citing the rapper's violence and other factors, said the guidelines would call for at least four to five years. Locked up since his September arrest, Diddy has already served nine months. A jury of eight men and four women acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fueled sex marathons with men. The defense team argued that the women were willing participants and that none of his violence justified the severity of the charges. For more on the shocking verdict everyone is talking about, search for The Trial of Diddy- available wherever you get your podcasts now.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Diddy's ‘cosy sweater strategy' and why trial style actually matters
Every morning when we stand in front of our wardrobes choosing what to wear, we make a series of decisions about how we want to present ourselves to the outside world: a tailored suit, for example, is often used to symbolise power. A tracksuit? Not so much. But never does 'a look' convey more than the sum of its parts than when it's worn in the high-stakes environment of a trial. Then it's not fashion, but carefully choreographed 'courtroom strategy' to let your clothes speak before you do. Take Sean 'Diddy' Combs, found guilty on Wednesday of two counts of transporting people for prostitution, but acquitted on the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, after an eight-week trial in Manhattan federal court. Combs, in the face of disturbing and lurid allegations spanning multiple years and several alleged victims, made a concerted effort to distance himself from his blinged-up alpha male hip-hop mogul image of old. Gone were the 'player' silken tracksuits, the confident heavy gold jewellery, the 'cartoon villain' OTT frills and grandeur of the floor-length black embellished coat featuring 600 Swarovski crystals and black pearls which he wore to the 2023 Met Gala – a custom piece from his own fashion label Sean John. Instead, court sketches showed the multi-millionaire music impresario sporting grey hair and a short grey beard (prison rules forbid hair dye), black rimmed studious-looking spectacles and soft sweaters in a range of sensible colours – beige, navy and grey; with the collar of a white shirt worn beneath the only notable feature. One day of his trial he sat patiently reading the Bible, a far cry from the ' freak-off ' swinger lifestyle he confessed to having enjoyed prior to his arrest. Who knows whether this appearance was a hitherto unknown quirk of Diddy's personal brand or part of what's been termed 'the nerd defence' by its originator lawyer Harvey Slovis (who once represented Mr. Combs during his trial on charges of gun possession in 1999). Either way, the phrase refers to the idea that glasses – accessories associated with thought rather than aggression – have a subliminal effect on a jury, predisposing them to assume a lack of guilt. Consider, too, his knitwear which took the 'just a regular guy'-vibe to a whole other level. Quite literally soft and cuddly, jumpers have been employed at several gruesome trials, from that of the Menendez brothers in 1993 (accused of shooting their parents) to those of Combs and Luigi Mangione, on trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. In December 2024 Mangione, a case in point of the power of personal image, donned a sensible all-American boy next door uniform of a burgundy crewneck and khakis to face 11 charges including first degree murder and the furtherance of terrorism. Sweaters aside, disgraced former movie mogul and convicted sex abuser Harvey Weinstein has a strategy of his own, appearing a dishevelled shadow of his once-imposing self each time he appears in court on rape charges. Sometimes seen struggling up the courtroom steps stooped over and using a walking aid, in April this year a hospital band indicating he was a 'fall risk' hung out of his suit sleeve in full view of the court. 'Everything in a courtroom serves a symbolic purpose, including the wigs and robes of the legal profession – the use of wigs has been in place since the 17th century and judges robes date from much earlier than that,' explains Dr Liza Betts, senior lecturer in cultural and historical studies at London College of Fashion (UAL). 'They are used to convey formality and to distinguish status and power. As the courtroom is so symbolically loaded it makes sense that the clothing of everyone present will be read in the same way – subject to the level of fluency someone might have in the language of dress being employed.' These men are not, of course, the only people to use the soft power of their appearance to convey a subliminal message in a legal setting. It was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who deftly mastered the art of trial style when, in 1972, the former First Lady sued New York's 'most unrelenting' paparazzo Ron Galella for public harassment, both of her and her children. Appearing in front of the judge, she cut an elegant, dignified figure bedecked in wool coats and button-up jackets. Onassis successfully obtained a restraining order against Galella (which he did not respect, causing the pair to later meet again in court). In 2002, actor Winona Ryder pushed the envelope when it came to courtroom dressing, entering fashion lore. Charged with shoplifting thousands of dollars' worth of goods from Saks Fifth Avenue, including pieces by Marc Jacobs, the star arrived at shoplifting trial dressed in a trompe l'oeil knit dress by none other than Marc Jacobs himself. Throughout proceedings, Ryder sported headbands, buttoned-up jackets over midi skirts and mid-height heels. Instead of three years in jail, the judge handed down a sentence of three years' probation and a fine. Billionaire reality star Kim Kardashian's appearance at a courthouse in central Paris last month is another case in point. There to give evidence in her own robbery trial (more than £7 million of jewellery was stolen from the star during a five-hour armed robbery ordeal in a Paris hotel in 2016) the American socialite turned up in a figure hugging power suit dripping in an estimated £6 million worth of jewellery. Arriving alongside her mother Kris Jenner to testify against the so-called 'grandpa robbers' – a group of nine men and one woman, with an average age of 70 – Kardashian donned a pair of Alaïa sunglasses, a waist-cinching vintage John Galliano black skirt-suit with a peplum and plunging neckline and slingback heels from Saint Laurent. Around her neck she wore a tear-drop diamond necklace containing a reported 52 carats of stones by New York-based rare diamond specialist Samer Halimeh alongside diamond earrings, including a 4.55 carat diamond over the ear cuff from Repossi and a £6,000 white gold and diamond pavé version by Briony Raymond. 'Ultimate power move,' said Raymond on her Instagram account regarding Kim Kardashian's appearance in her wares. 'A nod to jewelry as armour and a defiant statement that proves she will not be robbed of her love of jewelry and the joy it brings her.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Briony Raymond • New York (@brionyraymondnewyork) Not to mention, of course, Kardashian's ability to simply replace stolen gems worth millions of dollars and flex them in front of the accused. 'Clothes do communicate, we use them for this very purpose,' continues Dr Betts. 'To say who we are, who we think we are, who we would like to be, who we are told to be, or who we think others would like us to be.' Earlier this year, rapper A$AP Rocky appeared in a Los Angeles court facing charges of two counts of felony assault. Rocky arrived at his trial looking incredibly chic, as you would if you'd been kitted out in top-to-toe Saint Laurent (some items costing almost £4,000) by the brand themselves. Rocky was latterly found not guilty. Just goes to show, there truly is no such thing as bad publicity. The examples are numerous: Gwyneth Paltrow curated her courtroom image (soft, approachable in cashmere and wool from stealth wealth brands such as her own label Goop, The Row and Celine) after a personal injury claim resulting from a skiing accident saw her in front of a judge in 2023. Then there's fake heiress Anna Delvey – found guilty of grand larceny in 2019 after seducing Manhattan's glossy elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund her make-believe ventures – who employed the services of stylist Anatasia Walker to help create her courtroom 'look', which on day one consisted of a beige sweater, choker necklace and black dress that the New York Post claimed was from Miu Miu. 'Anna and I talked on the phone about what she was interested in wearing,' Walker told at the time. 'I couldn't show her photographs, but as people interested in fashion, we spoke in references about the themes she wanted to come through [in her outfits].' New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman notes that for those who don't regularly wear suits, donning one just to court in a pass notes bid for respectability can often backfire (in a departure from his normal style, R&B singer and now convicted sex abuser R Kelly wore them for his court appearances in 2021, ultimately being found guilty). But then again, so can being your authentic self. Martha Stewart who got it all wrong in 2004, turning up to court toting a £7,500 tan Hermès Birkin bag, multiple long strands of cultured pearls and a fake fur stole to defend herself against charges of insider trading. 'The Birkin did little to promote the image of an approachable woman who has struggled up from humble roots,' wrote the New York Times at the time. 'Instead, it cemented an image of her as a pampered fat cat seemingly willing to snatch money from an Average Joe Stockholder.' Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators and sentenced to five months in prison and two years' probation. Not only did Heather Mills McCartney defend herself during her divorce proceedings in 2008, but she also made her own three-piece suit to wear to court which apparently took inspiration from a court jester. But it seems Mills McCartney – who also threw a glass of water over Paul McCartney's divorce lawyer, the infamous Fiona Shackleton, in court – had the last laugh, walking away from proceedings with a cool £24.3m divorce settlement. The semiotics of courtroom style can sometimes reach the wrong audience. While battling addiction in the Noughties, actor Lindsay Lohan had multiple court appearances for earlier offences of driving under the influence which were heavily followed by the tabloid media. During one, in 2010, the star sat with her lawyer staring down press photographers with nails manicured with the words 'F--k U'. Whether or not the judge also read her not-so-subtle message is not known, but Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
